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Moses is the protagonist in the DreamWorks film, The Prince of Egypt. He is the son of Yocheved and Amram, and younger brother of Miriam and Aaron and grandson of Benjamin. As an infant, he put into a basket by his mother and was adopted by Queen Tuya and Seti I. He became Ramses' adoptive younger brother. Later in life, Moses learned of his true identity and eventually freed the Hebrews from slavery. He is voiced by Val Kilmer whereas his singing voice is provided by Amick Byram.

Background[]

Personality[]

While growing up, Moses lived the carefree life of a prince. He was lively, rakish, and fun-loving. He was also very loving towards his "mother", Queen Tuya, his "father", Pharaoh Seti, and his "older brother", Rameses. However, Moses was also very privileged and insensitive towards those "beneath" him. He tended towards recklessness in addition to his good qualities. After God revealed to him his true heritage through a dream, however, Moses's personality underwent a change. He began to care about Hebrew slaves and became sensitive to his "superiority". When Moses escaped Egypt and lived in Midian, he became more responsible as a shepherd and care-giver to the people of Jethro's tribe. After Moses was chosen by God to become the leader of the Hebrews, he had to adopt a more serious personality. Yet throughout the film, Moses maintains his loving nature and free-spirit.

Appearances[]

The Prince of Egypt[]

Baby Moses

Baby Moses

At the beginning of the film, Pharaoh Seti I orders that all the Hebrew baby boys are to be killed to prevent the Hebrew population from overtaking that of the Egyptians. Seti feared that as the Hebrews grew in number, they would attempt to overthrow him. As the cries of babies echoed through Egypt, a Hebrew woman, Yocheved, her daughter, Miriam, and son, Aaron, take a newborn baby to the Nile and place him in a basket. The child is Moses. Nearly pursued by Egyptian guards, Yocheved sings a lullaby, kisses her child and desperately sends him down the river, in the hopes that he will find sanctuary somewhere else. The basket finds its way to the royal palace and is found by Queen Tuya. Tuya is smitten with the child she finds within and decides to keep him. Miriam, who followed the basket to the palace, finds her brother in a place of safety and prays that he will return to deliver the Hebrews out of Egypt. Queen Tuya names the boy Moses (which means "raised from the river").

The prince of egypt

Moses as a teenager

Years later, Moses grew up in a carefree life as a prince. One day, he and his adoptive brother, Rameses, were racing through the temple of Ra and made a mess of it. Rameses got in more trouble than Moses because he was next in line for the throne and Moses wasn't. After Rameses was called "a weak link in the chain", Moses asked Seti if Rameses could just have the opportunity to prove that he's worthy of the throne. Seti agreed and later that night, he made Rameses Prince Regent. It was also at the party that Moses met his future wife, Tzipporah. Tzipporah is sent to Moses' room, but she escapes, and instead of turning her in, Moses let her go and followed her till he met Miriam and Aaron. Miriam was excited to meet her long lost brother, but Aaron didn't seem to recognize him. Miriam tries to explain that Moses is not actually a prince and that he was her brother, but Moses doesn't know what she's talking about. Before he storms off, Miriam sings the lullaby Yocheved sang to him as a baby. Moses recognizes that tune and runs back to the palace in confusion. Moses then falls asleep and God showed what Pharaoh Seti did in the beginning of the film. When Moses wakes up, he's shocked to find a carving of Seti ordering all the Hebrew baby boys to be thrown into the Nile on the wall, just as he had in the dream. Pharaoh Seti explains why he did this and tells Moses that they were only slaves, but Moses starts fearing him and runs off in horror and disgust. Moses is then seen at the spot where he was found as a baby, and Queen Tuya tells him that he is their son and they loved him. She finished the conversation by telling Moses that when the "[Egyptian] gods send you a blessing, you do not ask why it was sent".

At the temple of Ra, Rameses is planning to redesign it and Moses sees all the hard-working Hebrews but with a different impression: Now he knows that they're his people and feels terrible that while he is a Prince, they are all slaves, working hard to the near-limit. Especially because they're rebuilding what he had caused to be destroyed. He notices one elderly slave being whipped and Moses, out of reaction, came and killed the guard who whipped the slave. Moses then runs away, but Rameses tries to tell him that he can change what happened, claiming that he could absolve Moses of any wrongdoing. However, Moses refusing to listen, feeling he doesn't belong there anymore and leaves Egypt. He then travels the desert for a few days until a sandstorm rolls in and buries him. A camel then takes a bite out of his hair, waking him up, and then leaves with a bag of water. In a lust for thirst, Moses follows the camel back to an oasis where he drinks the same water as the sheep. He then sees desert muggers picking on children and makes their camels run away free. Moses then accidentally falls down the well and the children try to get him out. Zipporah arrives and helps, but when she recognized Moses, she dropped him back down to the bottom of the well, appearing satisfied with herself.

Moses then spends a few years in the oasis and during that time, he and Zipporah were married. One day, while Moses was tending to the sheep, a lamb wandered into a cave and Moses follows. Inside the cave is a bush burning cool fire and before Moses knew it, the bush spoke. It was God that was talking him, and He told Moses that he has heard the cries of the Hebrews and he has chosen Moses to bring his children out of Egypt. After a brief discussion, Moses listens and he and Zipporah return to Egypt. Moses and Rameses (who is now Pharaoh) reunite after years of not seeing each other, but the reunion is short-lived. Moses asks Rameses to let God's people go free. Rameses refuses and doubles the workload of the Hebrews (much to almost everyone's displease). Aaron then disses Moses when he's in the dirt, but Miriam & Zipporah speak otherwise, coming to Moses' defense. Moses then goes to the Nile and asks once again to let God's people go. Rameses refuses and in an instant, Moses turned the Nile to blood. Due to a trick by his priests - Hotep and Huy, Rameses thinks this is a trick and still refuses to let the Hebrews go. But Moses assures Ramses that this was only the beginning.

Over the next few days, chaos rained over Egypt with the Ten Plagues. Until finally, within Moses' happy brief moments with his brother, the Angel of Death - the last plague, took the lives of the first-born children of Egypt and Rameses gave Moses and the Hebrews his permission to go. Moses leads the Hebrews out of Egypt, but before they could cross the Red Sea, Rameses and his army appear and plan to kill the Hebrews. However, before they could get a chance, God summoned a tornado of fire to block the soldiers from reaching the Hebrews. Moses then made a clear pathway through the Red Sea and guided the Hebrews through. However, when they were almost on the other side, the fire tornado disappeared and Rameses and his soldiers charged toward the Hebrews. However, the walls of the sea began to fall and in an instant, all to the soldiers were slammed ashore, and Rameses was left on shore in defeat. Moses says one last goodbye to his former brother, and the film closes with him receiving the Ten Commandments.

Flushed Away[]

Flushed-away-disneyscreencaps

The Prince of Egypt DVD (fourth from right).

As Roddy St. James is searching for a film to see, Moses appears on the DVD cover of The Prince of Egypt.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman[]

During Peabody's montage of raising Sherman, Moses is seen as an infant as is found from the Nile.

Gallery[]

Wiki
DreamWorks Wiki has a collection of images and media related to Moses.

Trivia[]

250px-Moses Pleading with Israel (crop)

Portrait of Moses speaking to the Children of Israel

  • Moses is considered the most important prophet in Judaism and one of the most important prophets in Christianity, Islam, the Druze faith, the Baháʼí Faith and other Abrahamic religions. According to both the Bible and the Quran, Moses was the leader of the Israelites and lawgiver to whom the authorship, or "acquisition from heaven", of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) is attributed.
    • In the Exodus, Moses was 40 when he left Egypt 80 when he went back to Egypt and was 120 when he died. In the movie, he is around 18 when he left Egypt and around 31 when he returns.
    • In the Exodus, Moses and Tzipporah had two sons named Gershom and Eliezer. In the movie, Tzipporah and Moses just get married when he goes back to Egypt.
    • Moses had an Ethiopian wife named Tharbis before he left Egypt. In the movie, Tzipporah is his only wife.
    • In the movie, he was born around 1,301 BC, since Ramses II was born in February of 1,303 and was around 2 when Moses was adopted. However, Moses was probably born around 1,372 BC in real life.
    • Moses was seen again speaking with Elijah the prophet during Jesus Christ's transfiguration in the book of Matthew 17:4 in the Christian Bible.
    • Moses is Egyptian for "Child", but it's also Hebrew for "Drawn Out".
    • Moses, in the Bible, was a commander in Egypt as well as a prince. In the song "All I've Ever Wanted", he is seen holding a sword which he may have used in a battle. Usually, princes would go into battle from as early as 14 years old.
    • In the movie, Moses is put in a basket and put adrift on the Nile that very day, but in the bible, he was hidden for 3 months.
    • Moses' parents are aunt and nephew.
    • Moses was the main character in the entire Torah (known as the Pentateuch to Christians) with the exception of the book of Genesis, as well as the most important prophet in Judaism.
    • In the movie, Moses is talkative while in the Bible, he is an introvert and has a speech impediment (as he mostly had Aaron speak for him). It is noteworthy to mention in the film when god first chose Moses for prophethood, he starts to stutter, doubting himself.
    • The Bible doesn't depict Moses' reaction to the 10th Plague, as the movie shows him being torn about it. Moses cried not only because he saw his dead nephew as when he lived in Midian while the slaves suffered.
  • While Moses regularly appears as both a teenager and an adult, his more iconic age is as a teenager. The film goes more into depth with his teenage personality.
  • He is shown to be left-handed, as he always holds his staff with his left hand.
  • In the movie, Moses made attempts to reconcile with his former brother, attempts that were not reciprocated except for their final lengthy discourse in the temple while Egypt was under the effects of the Plague of Darkness, where Ramses asked Moses, "Why can't things go back to the way they were?"

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The-prince-of-egypt-50945689d919b
Media
Films: The Prince of EgyptJoseph: King of Dreams

Books: Read-Along

Characters
Main Characters: MosesRamsesTzipporahAaronMiriamGod

Minor Characters: AmunBakaDathanHotep and HuyJacobJethroJethro's daughtersJoshuaKahmaNefretiriNeriaSheti IShepherdsThe Angel of DeathTuyaYochevedSlaves of Egypt
Prequel Characters: JosephPotipharAsenathJacobJacob's sonsRachelZuleikaRameses IButlerBaker

See also
Locations: EgyptMount Sinai

Songs: All I Ever Wanted (Reprise) • Deliver UsI Will Get TherePlaying With the Big Boys NowThe PlaguesThrough Heaven's EyesWhen You Believe

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